Dr. Wu is associate professor in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. Steven will present on contracting issues for second generation perennial crops and will discuss issues of how to design contracts suitable for farmers interested in biomass crops for biofuels production.

Professor Tyner is an energy economist with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University. Professor Tyner’s research interests are in the area of energy, agriculture, and natural resource policy analysis and structural and sectoral adjustment in developing economies. He has over 200 professional papers in these areas including three books and 70+ journal papers, abstracts, and book chapters. He has received national awards for his work in policy, his research, and quality of communication. In 2009 he received the Purdue College of Agriculture Outstanding Graduate Educator award.

Harry Baumes, Ph.D.

Dr. Baumes is the Associate Director of the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses, within the Office of the Chief Economist, in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In addition to administrative responsibilities, Dr. Baumes’ activities focus on renewable energy policy and evaluation – particularly biofuels and feedstocks. Dr. Baumes was responsible for the overall agenda and for the Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development program for the ministerial level of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference which had representation from over 120 countries and 100 minister level officials, and more than 5000 attended (March 2008).

Prior to returning to the USDA in April 2006, Dr. Baumes was Managing Director of Agricultural Services for Global Insight (G.I.). There he had management responsibilities for the Agricultural Group, including domestic and international agriculture sector forecasting and consulting services. While at G.I., Dr. Baumes led three proprietary studies that looked at biofuels and implications for U.S. agriculture. Baumes has more than 30 years of professional experience conducting and/or managing domestic and international agriculture sector studies. He has broad experience, knowledge of domestic and foreign agriculture sectors and policies, agriculture commodity markets (crops and livestock), and agri-input sectors. Baumes has conducted research activities and advised agribusiness in the fertilizer industry, farm equipment sector, agricultural chemicals sector, and other agri-businesses.

Prior to G.I., Baumes was with the USDA’s Economic Research Service (1988–1996), where he served in several branch chief (leadership) positions—the U.S. Agricultural Policy Branch, the Western Hemisphere Branch, and the Resource and Environmental Policy Branch. Baumes led work at the USDA that provided relevant input to determine trade and commodity effects of the Uruguay Round Agreement and NAFTA. Over 1989–1995, Baumes represented the United States at the OECD, where he defended U.S. agricultural and trade policies and positions, as well as argued for agricultural reform by other member countries, such as the European Union and Japan.

Baumes holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University (1974), a Master of Science degree (1976), and a Doctorate of Philosophy degree (1978) in agricultural economics from Purdue University. Baumes’ graduate studies concentrated on quantitative methods.

Daniel De La Torre Ugarte, Ph.D.

Dr. Daniel De La Torre Ugarte is a professor of agricultural economics and associate director of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC) at the University of Tennessee. He received a B.S. in economics from the Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru) and a MS and PhD in agricultural economics in 1991 form Oklahoma State University.

Dr. De La Torre Ugarte has more than 15 years of experience in the areas of agricultural policy, international trade, and bioenergy. He helped established and developed APAC into a highly respected center that has developed working relationships with government agencies, national federal laboratories, other universities, non-government organizations (NGOs) in more than twenty countries.

His agricultural policy analysis worked has provided stake-holders with reliable analysis of issues affecting primarily the performance of the US agricultural sector, the issues researched range from alternative policy proposals for farm legislation to the analysis of the potential interaction between changing agricultural practices, carbon sequestration and climate change.

His work on bioenergy, has focused on the synergism between agricultural and energy policies, and how a bioenergy program based on agricultural feedstock could contribute to a national and international energy strategies to support farm and rural incomes in the US and abroad. The work done under this program has lead to the development of analytical capabilities that are unique in the country.

Dr. De La Torre Ugarte advanced APAC’s regional and environmental policy analysis capabilities by (i) disaggregating the supply side of the POLYSYS model into 305 Agricultural Statistical Districts, and (ii) linking POLYSYS with natural resource data and physical process models to estimate environmental impacts. He worked on the development of the first stochastic multi-regional agricultural sector model for policy analysis and integrated into the POLYSYS system the modeling of bioenergy-dedicated crops and the use of cropland for short rotations woody crops.